The present invention relates generally to an electrical connector and, more particularly, to a connector adapter for use in an electrical interconnection system to eliminate the need for interconnecting wires and some contact termination operations.
The present invention will be described as being applicable to an interconnection system for connecting an oxygen sensor assembly exposed to vehicle exhaust to an electronic control unit for the vehicle engine. However, it will be appreciated that the invention could also be used for any other type of electrical interconnection system. A prior electrical interconnection system comprises an oxygen sensor assembly which contains a printed circuit board that is connected to a set of wires by means of a printed circuit board connected mounted on the end of the sensor. The wires are in turn connected to an environmental connector comprising mating plug and receptacle connector members. A typical type of such environmental connector is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,880,487 to Goodman et al., assigned to the assignee of the present application. Wires lead from the receptacle connector member to a control unit. The use of the wires between the printed circuit board connector in the sensor assembly and the plug connector member in the prior art interconnection system adds considerably to the cost of the system and the assembly of the components. That is, contacts must be crimped to the opposite ends of the wires that extend between the printed circuit board connector and the plug connector member of the environmental connector, which adds substantially to the labor costs for assembling the system.
The reason the wires are required in the prior art system to connect the printed circuit board connector in the sensor assembly and the environmental connector is because the contacts in the printed circuit board connector are arranged in a pattern which is different from the layout of the contacts in the environmental connector, so that the receptacle half of the connector cannot be mated directly to the printed circuit board connector. The printed ciruit board connector and the environmental connector are standard commercial products. It is preferable that standard commercial parts be used to the extent possible in the interconnection system to avoid the cost of redesigning and retooling an entire connector.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an electrical interconnection system of the general type discussed above in which an electrical connector adapter is employed that eliminates the need for the interconnecting wires mentioned above thereby reducing the number of components in the system and the number of contact termination operations that are required. Another object of the invention is to avoid the need for designing and tooling two mating halves of a connector even though the layouts of the contacts in the printed circuit board connector and the environmental connector differ from one another.